Tag Archive for Books to Movies

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
Into the Looking-Glass Wood by Alberto Manguel
The Accidental Billionaires- The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich (Movie Cover)
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Strange Tales: From the Strand Magazine
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Edited by Peter Clayton & Martin Price)
50 Facts That Should Change The World 2.0 by Jessica Williams
Lego: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender (Advance Uncorrected Proof)
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky
Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design by Henry Petroski
The Home Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions, Troubleshooting Tips, and Advice on System Maintenance
The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert Kaplan
Feudal Society: Volume 1- The Growth of Ties of Dependence by Marc Bloch
Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies, edited by Andrea LaSonde Melrose
In the Wake of the Plague by Norman F. Cantor
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
The Science of James Bond by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg
The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose by Woody Allen
Teach Yourself: Copywriting by J. Jonathan Gabay

Back in stock:

Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap.. by Jim Collins (HB)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (HB)
J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth, a biography by Daniel Grotta-Kurska
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (UK edition)
The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Identity by Milan Kundera (UK edition)
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna KaysenBrave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
The Professor and the Madman (Dictionary Origin)

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Movie Cover)
The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras
Sun Tzu on the Art of War
Little Birds: Erotica by Anais Nin (Hardbound 1979)
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Hardbound)

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones)
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
1984 by George Orwell
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories
VALIS by Philip K. Dick
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Hardbound)
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Omnibus 3in1)
1984 by George Orwell
Identity by Milan Kundera
Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera
Life is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
The Raven and the Monkey’s Paw: Classics of Horror and Suspense
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales (Gaiman, Maguire, Kiernan)

The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
Peasants and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov (Number 1)
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr
Crash by J.G. Ballard
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
A Graveyard for Lunatics by Ray Bradbury
Vampire Blood Trilogy: The Saga of Darren Shan
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories
Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions
Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint
The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry (Edited by J.D. McClatchy)
The Captain’s Verses: The Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

On Writing Horror (Revised Edition, Edited by Mort Castle)
Madness and Modernism by Louis A. Sass
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
Best Food Writing 2009 (Edited by Holly Hughes)
The Anne Rice Reader (Edited by Katherine Ramsland)
The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology by Joseph Campbell
Fates Worse Than Death by Kurt Vonnegut (Hardbound)
The Thin Red Line by James Jones
The Art of the Steal by Frank W. Abagnale (Signed)

For inquiries please use this link, it is the most efficient way for us to read and reply to your message. Please be considerate and immediately settle the transaction if you reserve/order any.

Most books in this batch are in very good-good condition slightly used. Some may have price stickers/used book tags. There are no junks, you will be notified if condition deserves some clarification before purchase.

CLICK on the image you want to view, and click again to zoom them. Happy viewing!

Purchase anything on the website that’s for SHIPPING and you get a free Harry Potter bookmark! Sorry, no pick-ups! Bookmarks are LIMITED (around 8 to be given away) and once we run out we will announce it on our Twitter account: avalonph.

Promo ends November 22, 2010 or when supplies last. Common sense and Conditions apply (no late payments, etc).

If I were to choose among my pile of chick literature for my favorite, I would say that the Shopaholic series tops the list. Rebecca Bloomwood, the series’ main protagonist, takes you to a never-ending ride of shopping trips and funny escapades that her spendthrift ways bring about. The books are as shallow as any chick literature would be, but the type of superficiality that Kinsella’s books offer differ from the usual nonsense blabbering of other chick literature protagonists. Confessions of a Shopaholic gives you a never-ending ride of shopping galore, with Rebecca’s sweet and exciting romance with Luke Brandon, the multimillionaire PR representative, as a bonus. The second installment, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, portrays Rebecca as an even more avid shopper as she goes to New York for the first time. I have read four out of the five installments, and my favorite would have to be the third one so far. Shopaholic Ties the Knot is beautiful because we see a more mature (but definitely still an extravagant) Rebecca as her once-budding romance with Luke becomes permanent and even more enchanting. This kind of chick literature is a good break from the classics and other heavy reading, so it is perfect for the summer or for escaping the tiring demands of work. But its shallowness is not so that it will make you cringe at every page. The superficiality is served through witty writing that British authors are so famous for, and Kinsella does not exaggerate or fail in her insertion of humor throughout the stories.

The Shopaholic series is something I always recommend to my friends because it is a light read, yet it does not go overboard in its superficiality. Though Rebecca’s spending habits and her tendency to avoid and ignore her monthly bills might be a little too much, and irksome at its worst, there is still that sensible touch to the whole series that prevents me from dismissing it as a mere novel-version of Vogue. Personally, ever since I have read the book, I have developed a renewed sense of fashion style. Reading about Rebecca’s fashion predicaments, the constant name-dropping of high-end fashion labels, and the vivid depiction of shopaholic must-haves that Rebecca espouses indirectly made me aware of fashion what-nots and know-hows. Such examples would be the Hermés scarf that Luke gave her in Confessions of a Shopaholic or the Angel bag that she “just had to buy??? in the third installment. So, if you want some delightful chick literature to read, then the Shopaholic series is the way to go. Not only does Rebecca take you to a different level of fashion and sensibility as she traverses modern-day life with style and sophistication, but the series actually makes you realize the difference between an outfit from the ordinary jeans-and-shirt get-up.

Arthur Golden’s debut novel is a fictional account of a geisha’s life. It narrates the story of Chiyo, who, as a child, was sold into slavery together with her sister. Chiyo eventually becomes Sayuri, as she is taken in and trained to become a geisha, while her sister is taken into a whorehouse and becomes separated from her sister permanently. I read this many years ago, and Golden’s skillful display of his exceptional knowledge in geisha culture and lifestyle woven with his main protagonist’s own voice narrating the accounts of her personal life cemented this book on my favorites’ list. The smooth prose adds depth to the rich narration and the poignant life story of Sayuri. The bittersweet memories of her life and the gripping prose style with which Golden wrote the novel combine into one absorbing and elegant must-read. If you have seen the movie, then there is all the more reason to peruse the book, in order for you to realize just how much the film failed to give justice to the novel’s beauty. Sayuri’s rivalry with Hatsumomo and her love affair with the hairman are just some of the delectable highlights of the novel, which is rich with facts about Japanese culture and art. The history and culture of a geisha in Sayuri’s time provides a rich social landscape apart from Sayuri’s personal story, so that when you read the book, not only do you witness the ups and downs of Sayuri’s life, but also a slice of Japanese history, and the culture that makes it worthy of remembrance.

LovelyBones is not your ordinary tearjerker. I picked up the book with a Kleenex at hand, expecting to cry at the slightest dramatic antic. I was in for one major shock.

The book is not all tears and limitless impossibilities that are commonly associated with drama. The story is deeply poignant, yes, but also very grounded on reality. The story is touching because it showed how a teenage girl, Susie, could manage to cope with a horrifying incident which was, and still is, so alarmingly possible in real life. Though the premise of the story (point of view of a dead girl) is unrealistic, the incident which put her into that situation is a reality. What makes it even better is the prose. The book is elegantly written, with none of that overly exaggerated vocabulary used to intensify already-melodramatic storylines of other texts. Moreover, Susie’s tragedy is not treated with tears and solitude, but with a mix of humor and solemnity, so despite the sad premise, it was still far from depressing –which is what books should aim for, since nobody reads to get depressed. I also loved the prose because of its vivid power to connect to a reader’s heartstrings. Alice Sebold just knew how to tug the right strings at the right time. Throughout the story, I was keenly aware of how much the book emphasized the value of life, but only in one scene, which became an instant favorite, did this emphasis present itself at its best. It was the scene wherein the dead Susie desperately wanted to touch her crush, who was taking a shower. This part was written with such intensity that I actually felt how much my own life is worth, seeing as how one dead girl could yearn for mere physical contact (which only mortality could give) so immensely. The prose was so effective that I could feel how much Susie wanted to live again. Sebold’s language perfectly carved out Susie’s great thirst for life. It was only after finishing that part when I realized I was in tears. But then again, who could resist being moved when a book such as Sebold’s is in front of you, so hopeful and poignant without being overdone?